It seems odd there was a debate at all about whether they should go for AB de Villiers or Steven Smith, given the South African's destructive capabilities are second to none. The decision to appoint Mohammad Hafeez as captain is a sharp walkback from the Brendon McCullum era, which seems to have ended rather coolly.

Strengths: Aggression at the top of the order has not been compromised. Fakhar Zaman and Anton Devcich were solid at the top in the second half of last year's tournament, while with de Villiers and Hafeez to follow, there is a balance that didn't exist last year.

Weaknesses: There is an uncomfortably high reliance on spin bowling, with Sandeep Lamichhane, Yasir Shah, Hasan Khan and Mohammad Hafeez. The best fast bowler Lahore have is Shaheen Afridi, which is a heavy burden for a teenager to bear. Rahat Ali and Sohail Akhtar are the other options, but neither screams world-class.

Lahore Qalandars to pose a tough challenge to other PSL outfits: Fawad Rana

ISLAMABAD: Fawad Rana, the owner of Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchise Lahore Qalandars Tuesday said his team would pose a tough challenge to other PSL outfits in the fourth edition of the league.

“True, we remained at the bottom in the previous editions of the league. But this time our team will be a totally different outside, who will by trying to finish at the top,” he told media ahead of PSL draft here at a local hotel.

Rana said Lahore Qalandars had the best management and players. Our team management and players have worked really hard to put up a good show in fourth edition of the league,” he added.

Meanwhile, Javed Afridi, the owner of Peshawar Zalmi said former skipper Pakistan team Zaheer Abbas and off-spinner Arshad Khan would be the part of Zalmi team management. “It will be our effort to select a strong and well composed team for the PSL,” he added.

Nepal leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane is only 18 but is already a red-hot property in T20 franchise cricket.

From the moment he was spotted by Australia star Michael Clarke in the 2016 Hong Kong T20 Blitz, Lamichhane’s stocks have continued to rise in T20 cricket.

The leg-spinner has since gone on to feature in all major T20 leagues across the globe. He played his inaugural Indian Premier League this year where he turned out for Delhi daredevils and impressed with five wickets in three matches.

The teenager has already became the first Nepalese cricketer to be selected in the Caribbean Premier League for St Kitts and Nevis Patriots. In June, the leggie played for Montreal Tigers snaring eight wickets in five matches.

He wore the jersey of Nangarhar Leopards in the inaugural edition of the Afghanistan Premier League tournament in Sharjah in Septmeber. Last month, he was signed by the Melbourne Stars for the Big Bash League and was snapped up by Sylhet Sixers for the 2018–19 Bangladesh Premier League.

He has now completed the set by being picked up Lahore Qalandars in the Pakistan Super league, putting Nepal cricket once again on the global map.

His attacking leg-spin is an asset for any team on any surface and batsmen in the PSL can expect a torrid time on surfaces that should suit Lamichhane.

It is incredible to witness Lamichhane’s rapid rise. He made his List A debut in April 2016 and within two years, has conquered the T20 globe. Simply remarkable.

From queuing up for trials to being picked for PSL: a dream comes true for Haris Rauf

Rauf was Qalandars’ find in 2017 edition of player development program, since then he has travelled to Australia twice with the team, but caught everyone’s attention earlier this year when he bowled Qalandars to memorable victory in Abu Dhabi T20 Cup. — Geo News

KARACHI: Some 14 months ago, on a warm day of late summers, a young fast bowler travelled from Rawalpindi to Gujranwala, with a dream of playing top-level cricket via Lahore Qalandars player development program.

He proved himself to be the fastest bowler and quickly got the attention of everyone and was selected for Lahore Qalandars development squad.

Now, the same boy, known as Haris Rauf, is set to make his mark in the 4th edition of Pakistan Super League after being picked by Qalandars as supplementary player.

Rauf was Qalandars’ find in 2017 edition of player development program, since then he has travelled to Australia twice with the team, but caught everyone’s attention earlier this year when he bowled Qalandars to memorable victory in Abu Dhabi T20 Cup.

His impressive show during last few months has convinced Aqib Javed and the management of Lahore Qalandars to pick him for PSL.

For Rauf, this is dream-come-true moment.

“I can’t explain how much happy I am today to learn that I am picked for PSL,” he told Geo.tv from Australia where he’s playing grade cricket.

“I am thankful to Lahore Qalandars for the trust they have in me, especially to Sameen bhai, Atif bhai and Aaqib bhai. I had never imagined that I would be playing PSL.”

The fast bowler, before being picked by Qalandars, used to play tape-ball cricket in Rawalpindi which would help him earn some extra money as well.

Other than that, he was working for a daily wage of around 250 rupees (less than $2) per day.

“I played cricket at a very low level, I had never played proper cricket before being picked by LQ in players development program. I travelled to Gujranwala from Rawalpindi to give trials, I gave my best and got picked. Since then, Lahore Qalandars management has helped me a lot to improve,” he said, when asked about how his journey with Qalandars began.

“Qalandars have kept me with them for over a year now and it has helped me learn a lot, they brought me to Australia last year helped me earn a contract and then also took me to PSL with squad which helped me learn a lot.”

The 23-year-old pacer added that Lahore Qalandars changed his life and it can do the same wonders for any player who aspires to do well for country.

“Lahore Qalandars player development program can change your life. I was nowhere before coming to trials. But now I am happy and playing cricket and now looking forward to perform in PSL,” Haris said.

“I will try my best to make Lahore Qalandars victorious in PSL4. Lahore Qalandars will not let down its fans this time.”

LAHORE: Lahore Qalandars have appointed Mohammad Hafeez as captain for the fourth season of the Pakistan Super League (PSL).

Fakhar Zaman and Yasir Shah had also been considered, but Qalandars went with the more experienced captain.

In the last three seasons, Lahore Qalandars went with the Pakistan Test batsman Azhar Alias captain, followed by Brendon McCullum for the following two seasons. Azhar, their first captain, was removed from the job and never played again even though he was initially retained for the 2017 season, before being released. Two seasons with McCullum as captain did not help improve their fate either, with the side finishing bottom every year since the PSL’s inception. Over the three seasons, they lost 18 out of 26 games.

Since the first season, other teams retaining their local captains had left the Qalandars short on options. But for the upcoming fourth season, they had a wider pool of Pakistan players to pick a captain from, with Misbahul Haq, Mohammad Hafeez and Shahid Afridi all in the draft. They went on to pick Hafeez as their platinum player last month, believing a local captain would bring better results. Both Yasir and Fakhar were considered for the top job, with the proposition never quite materialising. The release of Hafeez from the Peshawar Zalmi roster this year made Hafeez the favoured pick.

Hafeez, 38, retired from Test cricket after the recently concluded Test series against New Zealand in UAE in a bid to focus on his limited-overs career. He has played 248 T20 matches, scoring 5244 runs at a strike rate of 122.35. He captained Pakistan in T20Is between 2012 and 2014 before stepping down just days after the team’s exit from the group stage of the 2014 World T20 in Bangladesh.

With AB Devilliers in the team, it’s a crime to have Hafeez as the captain.

I mean, if AB bangs both his shoes together, quite a few Hafeezes will fall out of the flying dust.

With what face Hafeez captains over Devilliers?

Click to expand...

AB doesn’t care. He’s here for a pay check, stop taking this to serious. Make AB captain and you are double screwed, if AB can’t be jacked to play for SA what makes you think he wants to do well in a second standard league? He’s getting 250 grand that’s good money for a month and then IPL, he made name for himself for SA now he’s getting notes. Hafeez will care because this is his league, this is Pakistan’s league also we haven’t got the IPL to go to.

AB doesn’t care. He’s here for a pay check, stop taking this to serious. Make AB captain and you are double screwed, if AB can’t be jacked to play for SA what makes you think he wants to do well in a second standard league? He’s getting 250 grand that’s good money for a month and then IPL, he made name for himself for SA now he’s getting notes. Hafeez will care because this is his league, this is Pakistan’s league also we haven’t got the IPL to go to.

Click to expand...

Somewhat true.
But if I was LQ's owner and I suspected that AB is here JUST for his pay check and not going to care of putting any effort to make a difference and increase the probability of winning me more games, I will fire him in a heartbeat.

DUBAI: Nepalese cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane said Tuesday night he was looking to learn from his teammate, Lahore Qalandars' Yasir Shah.

Lamichhane, who has now set eyes on making his mark in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), said: “Playing along with Yasir Shah will be a great moment for me. He’s a legend and has done a lot of things for Pakistan.”

The Nepalese spinner is currently among one of the most sought-after players in franchise cricket — and an exceptional signing in the PSL — given that he is the only one from any associate nation to play almost every league.

The 18-year-old, drafted by the Qalandars for the fourth edition of the PSL, becomes the first Nepalese cricketer to feature in the highly-anticipated series.

Speaking to Geo.tv about sharing a dressing room with Shah and how it would help him learn more about the art of spin, Lamichhane explained that it was "a good thing for me to be playing for the same team where Yasir Shah is playing.

"Whenever you share a dressing room with such kind of legend player, you automatically get to learn a lot of things. […] I will get to learn more about leg spin from him and I’m really looking forward to it,” he added.

The right-handed leggie said he was proud to be associated with the Qalandars and that he looked forward to a season that he described as “beautiful days”. He also had his first training session with the Qalandars earlier today.

“I’m looking forward to playing an important role for my team and enjoying my time playing this league,” Lamichhane noted.

In January, last year, when he was included in the list of players up for grabs in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018, the Delhi Daredevils bought him, making him the first Nepalese cricketer to get a contract in the IPL.

In March 2018, he was drafted to play for the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots team in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).

Lamichhane has also played for the Montreal Tigers and the Nangarhar Leopards in the 2018 Global T20 Canada and the Afghan Premier League, respectively, before being signed by the Melbourne Stars for the Big Bash League.

Playing in leagues all around the world and making his home country proud is a big achievement for this young Nepalese.

“It’s a proud feeling to be playing in the PSL and other leagues in the world, being from an associate country Nepal.

"It’s a big achievement, coming from a small country where you don’t expect much [and] to be playing and making your country proud,” he said.

Talking about his training and skills, Lamichhane said the coaches at his academy back in Nepal helped him a lot in growing as a cricketer.

He turned to leg spin after being unable to bag friends' wickets in street cricket with his off-spin.

“I was very young when I started playing cricket with friends on the streets.

"I used to bowl off-spin and straight balls but it didn’t help me in getting them out so I started leg spin, from where I started feeling that batsmen hesitate in playing leg spin … from there, I started my journey and joined an academy in Nepal,” he recalled.

Lamichhane is likely to make his PSL debut against Multan Sultans on Friday in Sharjah.

Sports rivalries add spice to competitions world over. The pressure of the match is often felt by players, coaches and above all the fans.

Lahore and Karachi - two cities in Pakistan which have a history of rivalries in many spheres but it is a cricket contest which beats everything. The PSL match between Lahore Qalandars and Karachi Kings on Feb. 16 was a recent occasion where the intense rivalry came to the fore.

Lahore's 22-run victory over Karachi led to some wild celebrations by the Qalandars fans who targeted Wasim Akram, who is from Lahore, but is part of the Karachi team. The celebrations infuriated some of the key Karachi players who in turn argued with Qalandars fans.

Lahore Qalandars opener Fakhar Zaman while talking to Khaleej Times welcomed this rivalry and said: "It is an age old rivalry on the cricket field between the two cities. It is the beauty of the game as it brings out the best from the players and (it) should be considered a positive factor.

"The rivalry dates back to the 50s and 60s at the domestic level and the PSL provides a new platform for the players and fans."

Lahore finished at the bottom last year and the owners have invested heavily this time by roping in some big names including AB de Villiers. They have won one two of five matches so far.

"The tournament is quite young and the loss against Peshawar Zalmi should be a wake-up call for us. We committed many mistakes against Islamabad and Karachi and lost both the matches. We hope to mitigate our mistakes in future."

The left-hander, himself a product of the PSL, is confident that the league will produce more players.

Sandeep Lamichhane: Nepal's globetrotting star adapts to PSL with a little help from Yasir Shah

Ahead of Lahore Qalandars’ meeting with the league-leading Quetta Gladiators in the Pakistan Super League on Saturday, their two leg-spinners trained happily together on a cut strip on the side of the square.

They shared a cricket ball, traded high-fives, shared ideas. One loped up to the wicket, landed a perfectly-pitched googly that turned sharply, then bounded back to his partner and mimed with his hand exactly how it should be done.

And the other guy was Yasir Shah.

Sandeep Lamichhane has achieved so much over a remarkable past year-and-a bit that has taken him from school fields in the nether reaches of ICC competition with Nepal, to the T20 global tour's biggest shows.

The latest endorsement of his talent has come in the PSL. Having arrived late, after the conclusion of the Big Bash League in Australia, where he was the thriftiest bowler in the competition’s final, he has gone straight into the Lahore XI as their first-choice spinner.

Yasir, who has been so prolific in Test cricket for Pakistan that he has broken scores of records in recent years, would not have made the starting line-up for the game against Quetta were it not for the fact the worn wicket looked likely to take spin. Lamichhane, though, was already inked in.

The fact that, even though he is giving away 14 years in age to his illustrious teammate, as well as thousands of overs worth of international cricket, he felt confident enough to give Yasir advice is perhaps not quite such a surprise.

Yasir famously relies most on a big-spinning leg-break as his stock-ball, while his googly is less-feared. Lamichhane, meanwhile, has become hot-property on the T20 circuit because of his variety, and generally bowls a large proportion of googlies.

Plus, their demeanour suggested they might already be good pals. Theirs is quite the flourishing bromance. As well as spending much of the warm-up together, they were in cahoots for much of Lahore’s – ultimately doomed – defence of their total, too.

When Lamichhane was bowling, Yasir raced from his position at square leg to make a suggestion. Between overs, Yasir also had his arm around his younger colleague’s shoulder.

Qalandars’ management announced that Brendan Taylor has been ruled out following an injury on his calf muscle and will not play the remaining PSL4 matches. They noted that as they already have six foreign players in the current roster, therefore, at the moment, a replacement for Taylor isn’t required. Lahore’s management added that Shaheen Shah Afridi, who was also rested against the Gladiators, will be available for the next match. Qalandars captain Hafeez has already been ruled out of the tournament after he fractured his thumb during the match against Karachi Kings on February 16. Veteran batsman Salman Butt replaced Hafeez.

DUBAI: South African great AB de Villiers says he is excited to be featuring in Pakistan Super League (PSL) and that he would like to play a role in the revival of cricket in the country.

“I am very happy to be a part of the league. It is really exciting and the quality of cricket is very good,” de Villiers told the official website of the league. “It is quite nice to be playing cricket, enjoying it and being part of a very nice team. They are good human beings and it is exciting. We are really working hard in the league.

“The Lahore guys are very good people. The owner (Fawad Rana), Sameen Rana and right through the coaching staff and the players are good friends, so we get along well and we have fantastic energy,” said the Lahore Qalandars’ player.“It is right up there with some of the best cricket that I have played,” the former South African wicketkeeper batsman said.

He said Pakistan players deserved to have cricket in their home country. “I feel they (Pakistan) have a very rich history in cricket. They are a very proud nation of cricket and have a rich tradition. I feel they deserved to have cricket in their home country. If I could contribute, in any way, in helping that happen, even if it is 0.01 percent then I am very happy to do so,” he said.

Talking about the World Cup, de Villiers said it was difficult to predict the winners. “You can’t look past India and Pakistan in the ODIs. Pakistan won the Champions Trophy, England are the hosts and you cannot discount Australia. South Africa would like to think they can win, so these are the five I have named who are the real big favourites,” he explained.

New Zealander Corey Anderson says leagues like Pakistan Super League provide youngsters a good chance of learning and maturing.

DUBAI: New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson has aimed to play an important role for Lahore Qalandars in their campaign for the Pakistan Super League 4 title.

Speaking to Geo.tv in Dubai, the New Zealand player said that leagues like PSL provide youngsters a good chance of learning and maturing.

The 28-year-old, who broke the long-standing record of the fastest ODI hundred by Pakistan's Shahid Afridi in 2014 when he completed three-figure off 36 balls, is playing for Lahore Qalandars in the PSL.

Anderson is hopeful to deliver for Lahore, who finished fifth and last in the first two editions and sixth and last in 2018.

"The aim is to win the PSL for Lahore and that's the number one goal and other than that is to do something for the team," said Anderson.

"If I play the rest of the games, hopefully, I can do something and win games for us. But if not, I am on the sidelines, and I can do whatever I can to help out and get us to that ultimate goal of winning," he added.

Talking about his experience of playing in the Pakistan Super League, Anderson said he enjoys being a part of this league.

"It's been fantastic. Obviously, we want more wins. Everyone is welcoming coming into the group. It's nice to play with some players against whom I have played at international level and then rub shoulders with guys like AB…it’s fantastic."

The flamboyant player from New Zealand added that Pakistan Super League is a top-level competition and a massive opportunity for the youngsters participating in the tournament.

"It is of a very high level," he said when asked about how he rates the competition level in PSL.

"The Pakistan guys are at high level and it’s a fantastic competition. The level of the overseas guys is also high as I have said that there is AB. To have all these players in the camp, it becomes a quality competition," he added.

Asked about the contribution PSL is making in helping groom youngsters, Anderson said that rubbing shoulders with top quality players is always helpful for aspiring players.

"I know when I was starting it was the evolution of the IPL. For young guys to go through the system of T20 cricket is great. To train with the great players and then play cricket with them is the quality you want," he said.

Anderson further added that Twenty20 leagues like PSL are rewarding and a learning process for even players like him. He also lauded the player development program of Lahore Qalandars of which Haris Rauf, his teammate, is a find.

"It's extremely great and to play with extremely high level players is massive. It’s been a great opportunity to just be in the environment, learn and train in different facilities and fast track things and to train with young players is massive," he said.

"You can see some young talent on show, the likes of Haris Rauf, Lahore's newest pace sensation, who has come through leaps and bounds. Had seen him last year in the PSL and obviously been involved with them this year and seen him how he is progressing…it's fantastic," Andersen added.

Recalling the memories of his fastest hundred, Anderson said he did not know of the feat until it was announced.

"I didn't know I had broken a record until the time it was announced. But that was fantastic and that was a great day and pushed me into a bit of limelight and all of a sudden, the rest was history," the New Zealand batsman added.

"I played numerous competitions and all places around the world. It was fantastic and it’s nice to be able to come to this kind of competition, share my experiences and theirs, and listen to their stories and its fantastic," he said.

When asked if his fans should expect one of such innings from him during the ongoing PSL, he replied positively.

“AB was available for only nine games. He has played six and will play three more including the two matches in Lahore,” a source said, adding that the South African batsman will also miss one league match in Abu Dhabi.

“In light of this, the Qalandars management decided that a player who is available [Fakhar Zaman] should lead the team in remaining games,” the source added.

Earlier, AB de Villiers had taken over the Qalandars captaincy after Mohammad Hafeez was ruled out of the tournament due to an injury.

Lahore Qalandars will travel to Pakistan for the home stretch of the PSL without South African ace AB de Villiers. De Villiers, who had signed up for seven games of the UAE leg and two matches in Lahore, had gone back home and now, because of a back injury, won't be returning to rejoin the team, the franchise told ESPNcricinfo.

The PSL's UAE leg ends on March 5, before the last four group matches and the qualifiers and finals are held in Karachi from March 9.

The games in Pakistan were initially scheduled to be split between Lahore and Karachi, but all games have now been moved to Karachi. The decision was made keeping in mind logistical issues stemming from the recent political and military tensions between Pakistan and India.

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